I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

... just like the ones I used to -- see in pictures of Montana!!
This is a glorious winter photo of Gordon Reese Cabin, located near Chief Joseph Pass
on the Montana-Idaho border (photo, http://bitterrootxcskiclub.net/).

And we get to stay there!!!!! 

Not for Christmas. But we'll ski in for a January overnight as new members of the Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club.  The cabin was built in 2001 on some 17 miles of cross-country ski trails, south of Hamilton and high up in the national forest (elevation 7,264 feet).  It actually is a U.S. Forest Service property -- a hike-in cabin in summer and a winter warming hut "hosted" by ski-club volunteers who also help maintain it.

Winter-phobic friends here in the Midwest ask the following very first question about living in Montana: "Have you spent a winter there?!"

Snow high up in the Montana mountains (this and all photos, below,
generously lent to me for this post by Corvallis, MT, photographer Mel Holloway.
Mel also does volunteer grooming of ski trails around Gordon Reese Cabin.)

"No," I say, "but we love cold weather."  That doesn't seem to satisfy the questioners. So, I go to the stats!

Down in Hamilton (elevation 3,563 feet), the average temperatures in January, I read, are a high of 34.4 and a low of 16.8 degrees -- not outrageously cold and certainly not like in the wide open Montana prairie towns with winds bearing down on them from Canada: minus 70 is a record low I've read about there. We're on the western side of the Continental Divide.  That, apparently, helps.

And snow in town? There's usually very little (although there's an inch or so right now, leftover from flurries last week). I read that the average precipitation in Hamilton in January is just 1.11 inches. We're not even guaranteed a white Christmas, unless we look out our back windows to mountain tops that tend to get most of the precip moving in from the west. Pretty moderate, if you ask me.

Actually, this shelter of the Bitterroot Mountains (to the west) and the Sapphire Mountains (to the east) also helps give the valley its nickname -- “Banana Belt of Montana.”  Just ask any gardener.

Heavier snow on mountain tops, lighter in the valley.

They look for perennials, trees and shrubs that bear the cold-hardy designation of USDA Zone 5a -- for plants weathering winter lows of from -15 to -20F (the same USDA winter category as for DesMoines, Iowa, or for much of northern Illinois, for that matter).  St. Louis, by way of comparison, is in USDA Zone 6a (for perennials that withstand lows of from -5 to -10). Of course, any single out-sized cold-weather event can eclipse those averages.

What is undeniable is the beauty of these winters.

Hawk in a Bitterroot snow...

...icy stems in the valley.

Western log fence...

...sunset and snow.

Happy holidays to all! (and thanks so much, Mel!!)

"So You Want to Live in Montana"...

Did you know that there are no paved roads in Montana?

That is just one of many themes in a new amateur, computerized video that the Missoulian (owned by Lee Enterprises; please don't hold that against them) says is going viral.

Check it out! http://missoulian.com/so-you-want-to-live-in-montana/youtube_405400fc-01d5-11e1-8e44-001cc4c002e0.html

Alex and I think it's hilarious.

As we back-and-forth between Hamilton and St. Louis, we talk to people who really do voice some of the same odd concerns that video maker Brian Miller put in his dialogue.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/youtube-video-that-pokes-fun-at-moving-to-montana-goes/article_4a040c1e-01d5-11e1-a5f5-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1cYlab8m1

Tee hee!! (I especially like one Montanan's comment: "This is great!... It will keep people from moving to our beautiful state!")

Our Midwest fall garden

It's been a spectacular weekend back in St. Louis, with cool sunny weather, celebrations of the St. Louis Cardinals' World Series Win (http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=stl, woohoo!!) and the antics of Halloween. But I am in my garden today (Nov.1! -- isn't Oct. 15 our last average frost date here?!). And that ubiquitous Cardinals red that filled my brain for the last week is beginning to fade. Now there's a whole new color palette to enjoy. Under the hues of the turning trees, there are the purply blues of winter-hardy pansies that I purchased and potted up (but plan to put in the ground today or tomorrow for effortless color under daffodils next spring)...

There's a harvest of some of the very last of the pumpkin-orange Sun Gold tomatoes (http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7929-sun-gold-f1.aspx)...

... while yellow-stemmed Swiss chard (okay, plus a few Cardinal-red stemmed ones) wait in another bed (http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/0113/Swiss-Chard-Bright-Lights-Blend-Seed/srch:swiss%20chard)...

...There are herbs out the wazoo (it's November and even the basil still thrives! crazy!)...

I move the last of the tender plants to our basement light-room, now filled with orchids, a few annuals for an experimental over-wintering plus a Meyer lemon tree...

After a meeting in mid-town, I take a walk through the nearby Missouri Botanical Garden (http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/) and see, among other things, bees and butterflies getting the last nectar from fuzzy blossoms of Mexican bush sage...

...while busy Mobot volunteers put in some of the hundreds of thousands of bulbs that they plant each fall, for beauty next spring.

I am inspired (guilted?). I think about the bag-o'-bulbs hanging in my garage -- some of the new Midwest Mix that I purchased via Brightside St. Louis (http://brightsidestl.org/). I go home, sort them out and plant 90 of them.

Here's a favorite from the mix: It's called 'Barrett Browning' in ivory-white with orange coronas. It should look spectacular, blooming above all of those re-emerging pansies! One of many things to look forward to in 2012!!

Bittersweet feelings in the Bitterroot

We've had two days of fall fun in Montana before a trip back to St. Louis to wrangle the house there. But that fun may come at a cost...

A rainbow and low clouds yesterday, at Victor, MT.

...I'm beginning to wonder if we're suffering, in our own different ways, from some psychosomatic illness, such as Stendhal syndrome, wherein dizziness, rapid heartbeat, even fainting may occur when a person is exposed to "particularly beautiful or a large amount of art in a single place," say the Internets. This syndrome has been most frequently attributed to art in Florence, Italy. "The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world."

Could Montana be too beautiful?

Yesterday in Victor, we volunteered on a crew that helped build the small centerpiece -- native plants inside a circle of pathways -- to a huge new community garden for that small town. It was a cold, blustery day, alternately very sunny and very overcast, a storm moving in one moment, sun and an exquisite rainbow (see above) the next. I grew incredibly tired after the first few hours of work, my heart fluttering at times. Alex had some dizziness this morning. We just may be a bit old for all of this house remodeling, volunteering and changing of addresses. Or... we may be getting overwhelmed by the beauty all around us all of the time! The latter should be easiest to treat.

Victor's new start to a community garden, with plants provided by Hamilton's own Great Bear Restoration
310 North 4th Street
Hamilton, Montana 59840
406.363.5410 x 118
http://www.great-bear.biz/

We drive home on back roads to get a real taste of the season and the countryside.

We see a white-peaked barn that mimics white peaks above the turning trees.

We zip past harvested hay in bales, lining the valley floor.

We climb a bit to see the sweet pale yellow of deciduous leaves against evergreens.

Boo! Back in the valley, we stop in at the family-owned Moeller's Nursery. And we peak at a few of many scary pumpkins.

Blue! We see the Hubbard squash at Moeller's, too -- as pale and gnarly as ever.

Orange you glad there's so much yummy orange squash (Kabocha?) this year? We are. Yum.

And we view more pumpkins, acorn squash and other unique varieties that will keep the valley well-supplied all winter long...

From Moeller's Nursery, 946 Eastside Highway in Corvallis I want to visit other garden centers. But we run out of time. Next spring I know I'll go back to Moeller's but also go to Bitterroot Nursery 521 Eastside Highway, Hamilton. And to Cooks' Gardens, 177 Golf Course Road, Hamilton. And to what's already a favorite, Sam's Spade Garden Tools, 111 South 4th Street near downtown Hamilton.

There's so much gardening going on in this part of the country. We head home to plan.

The sun comes out on our little leaf-strewn street in Hamilton.

 "There is a lot going on in Missoula," advises our architect, Angie Lipski. Indeed, there's an Ansel Adams exhibit that we'll catch in December, and loads of interesting bookstores, shops and cafés. "Folks who move from urban areas," she says, "are always pleasantly surprised at the offerings in cultural activities, food, etc." In honor of the St. Louis Cardinals' World Series efforts, we want to try Red Bird Restaurant & Wine Bar on our way to the airport the next day. But our Open Table-Internet search turns up "No availability within 2.5 hours of requested time in next 8 weeks." Wow. We must plan far, far ahead next time (http://www.redbirdrestaurant.com/).  

We do take Angie's suggestion of Caffe Dolce, on Brooks at Beckwith near downtown…"great terrace, weather permitting" (http://www.caffedolcemissoula.com/) and have a superb meal of short-ribs on pappardelle plus a kick-ass fresh salmon-and-spinach omelette and the best lattes we've had in awhile.

Missoula's Caffe Dolce, inside...

Caffe Dolce, out.

In the coming months, we'll sample others of Angie's suggestions, including Scotty’s Table (http://scottystable.net/);  Pearl Café (http://pearlcafe.us/);  Sapore (http://www.missoulasapore.com/) ; and The Silk Road, "wonderful tapas restaurant, on the south end of the Higgins Street Bridge" (http://www.silkroadcatering.com/); and, The Oxford Saloon (http://www.the-oxford.com/) for the "best chicken fried steak," says Liz Milner;  as well as Zimorino's Red Pies Over Montana (http://www.zimorinos.com/Zimorinos/Home.html),  for "the best pie under the big sky," says Pat Corrigan.

And we'll try very hard not to let the beauty of it all get to us.

Into the woods...

                Beginning of a fall hike up Canyon Creek (we're getting outside and away from new-house chores!).  Our own garden at home should look this good!

Mosses on trees -- very peaceful, attractive scenes.

Leafy liverworts along the trail.

A spectacular fall rock garden (with St. Louis Cardinal red the predominant color, to my eye, anyway!!)

A look upward from the rock garden, through remnants of wildfire to bare granite up top.

Me, bundled up against fall chill, with my tiny camera in hand (photo by Alex).

Bitterroot Tastings...

Eating in and around Hamilton, MT, over the last two weeks has been a treat! And being foodies, we were curious about how a small town would hold up to eating in the big city. Just fine, thank you very much! Mornings are best with a stop for great coffee at River Rising (http://www.riverrisingbakery.com/).

In the home-cooking department, there is the from-scratch cornbread and white chicken/chili -- made with extra-hot chilies -- at Mary Barton's house on a hill above Hamilton. It is some of the best chili I've ever tasted.

In our new home, there are still the pristine, end-of-summer spicy organic greens plus heirloom tomatoes that we purchased at the last Hamilton Farmers' Market (http://hamiltonfarmersmarket.webs.com/).

A few of those Hamilton organic greens.

While at the farmers' market, we have a breakfast burrito from a fantastic local food truck, owned by the restaurant La Mas Fina Mexican Food Taqueria (http://www.yelp.com/biz/la-mas-fina-mexican-food-taqueria-inc-victor) just north of Hamilton. The truck must be a new addition, if you read the Yelp review.

Farmers' market menu for La Mas Fina Taqueria.

And for dinners at home so far, we've paired the farmers' market salads with pasta and the pesto that we made from my garden, froze and hauled 1,600 miles to Hamilton. We also brought bouquets of fresh basil cuttings -- to spare them from a St. Louis frost. They all made it here in Zip lock bags in an inch or so of water, bags sealed as tightly as possible around stems and sunk into a sturdy box that wedged nicely between driver and passenger seats. Not a single spill, and the car had a heady licorice smell every time we brushed the basil.

Basil cuttings, transported from St. Louis.

Yeehaw!! One celebratory night, we go to The Signal Grill on Main Street (http://www.thesignalgrill.com/) where a bar/eating establishment has been in "the same location since 1898." I had an exquisite mesquite grilled House-cut Rib Eye. Alex ordered the Montana Mountain High Steak smothered in mushrooms. YUM. 

Part of The Signal Grill menu.

And one luminous late Sunday afternoon in nearby Victor, we dined on homemade 40-garlic-clove chicken, organic beet salad and fresh peach galette at Marie Anne Hasenkrug's dinner party.  I didn't take pictures and, in hindsight, I think I know why: The food was a work of art, and I was mesmerized!

Then there are all of the quick local bites. 

We like Tuesday-night Thai carry-out via the food truck, Buddha Belly, when it comes down from Missoula (http://thaispicy.net/BuddhaBelly.htm). The curry chicken is superb!

We grab tasty sandwiches for lunch from The Loft, on the second-floor of a Main Street building (http://theloftdeli.com/).

Lunch at The Loft.

And then, there is The Wild Mare. It's a wonderful, rough-hewn place (http://www.thewildmare.com/Home.php) with very little signage in the valley town that is Corvallis (mountain views to die for). Recently, we got great pub grub there, but there also is an extensive menu for the restaurant side of things, with dancing some evenings. We met up with Mel and Mary Alice Holloway for dinner. And after that, they took us to a meeting of the Bitterroot Cross-Country Ski Club. We joined! And in a raffle-type system, we won a free night to ourselves in January,  in a cabin ( http://www.bitterrootxcskiclub.net/photos.htm ) that's a 1/2-mile into a beautiful ski-trail system on the Continental Divide!! We can invite friends (have done so), cook a communal meal with ingredients that we bring in on skis, and also serve as hosts/caretakers of the cabin that night and the next day. What fun and what an honor.


One more foodie/gardening event: Yesterday, I helped put up and distribute posters in Hamilton for a community garden planting Oct. 22, organized in Victor by the group SLS (Sustainable Living Systems -- http://www.sustainablelivingsystems.org/).

The planting poster.

We plan to go and help plant the natives donated by a Hamilton business that I still need to visit -- Great Bear Restoration (http://www.great-bear.biz/). We'll also eat lunch at the Victor Community Garden and take our own kitchen tools to make salsa from their harvest.

And we haven't even begun to plow through the list of great restaurants and cafés in Missoula, provided to us by a new contact, our architect Angie Lipski. What an adventure!

Da Bears...

It is a quiet day at home, just the screech of an electrician's cable pulling wires through the walls, a fruitful -- if daunting -- interview with an architect from Missoula and, eventually, the whir of my own hair dryer, when Eric calls from his home high on a hill above Hamilton.

"Are you interested in bears?" he asks dryly.

And we say, "Are we? Of course!" And he says, "Come on over. I've got two up in a tree." We're there in a flash -- me with damp hair, Alex almost forgetting and then retrieving my camera. And out Eric's back door, down a bit of slope and high up in a Ponderosa pine are the teddiest and furriest of bears -- Ursus americanus -- one cinnamon brown, one densely black (http://fieldguide.mt.gov/detail_AMAJB01010.aspx).

Brown Bear is highest in the tree...

...and intent on something on the ground? Or asleep?

Oh, that's right, now he/she is looking at us!

Meanwhile, some 50 feet below Brown Bear but still high above our heads, Black Bear looks very, very sleepy.

He/she bestirs, but just a bit. Look at those claws!!

And then, making an editorial comment? or beginning to groom? a bear-sized tongue appears.

We walk back to Eric's deck, drink local beer and enjoy a sunny afternoon. Eric knows the bears are mostly interested in fruit, nuts, and some vegetation this time of year -- apples falling from his trees, bird food on his deck. They may be back. They may move on. Not a problem. Just another day in the Bitterroot!